hat Did They Say? - Favorite Line from the Group Project Film

The group I am in for the film remake project eventually decided to go with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Rather than just posting my favorite line from the film (which I will do below), I thought it would be better to post a clip from one of my favorite scenes in the movie:

Favorite Line:

(Castle Dweller / Guard): "Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"

There is just something about the completely out of place scientific debate in the middle of a dingy 'medieval' English landscape that makes me laugh every time.

-Kelly F.

History of the Internet - Part One (of One Reflection)

The history of the internet is interesting for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that our modern system developed from such a variety of sources.  I had already heard a lot of the information in the video our digital imaging class was asked to watch on the subject, but the video did help to put the different projects that would become the internet into perspective.  Perhaps the reason I have learned about this, and also the reason I find it interesting, is that my parents both worked with computers from the time of punch-cards and onward.  They have always done a good job of reminding me just how far computing has come, telling me stories about data transfer and networks in the old days.  When I used to think about the old networks designed for defense and information gathering/sharing purposes, I rarely remembered how important the systems in England and France were to the modern internet.  It is interesting to note that some of the most important developments in methods for sharing information with computers came from England and France, while America was initially more influential in the way hardware was arrange.  The concept of a decentralized network system that could survive an attack is important, but the idea of breaking up information into packets for transfer forms the backbone of how information travels from one computer to another.  Remembering these facts is important in reminding people just why it is called the World Wide Web, and how fortunate we are that the systems merged and gave us the wonderful source of information and means of communication we have today.

Potential Moview to Remake (Parody/Funny Style)

After speaking with my group, the list of names we have come up with for consideration are as follows:

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• Red

I think the group will probably pick between these two movies, which worries me slightly in the case of Monty Python and the Holy Grail... How does one make a spoof of a spoof?  A low budget version of an already low budget film?  A funny movie out of an already very funny movie?  If we go that route, though, we will manage something...

I will add another three that I came up with:

• Air Force One
• Gone with the Wind
• Lord of the Rings (any of the three films, or a mash-up of all of them)

I think any of these higher-budget, serious, or action films would be great material for the movie remake.  Even remaking Monty Python could work, if the group were to do wither a serious version, or perhaps an extended ending.  Maybe it would even work to expand the portions about the history professor's murder, showing 'the Monty Python you never knew..." Otherwise, we would just be repeating the original film.  Once people have had the opportunity to consider other options, the group will come to consensus as to the movie we will remake.

-Kelly F. 

Caught in the Web - A Website with a Pleasing Design

As we begin our website design projects, the class has been asked to find a website with an aesthetic we appreciate, or that inspires us in our own endeavors.  One website that has caught my attention is one that is being run out of Australia:

http://www.creativespaces.net.au/

This site exists as a means of connecting artists and studio, exhibition, and performance spaces.  The reason I am drawn to this website is that it is simply cool and quirky.  The graphics have a surreal, almost distressed appearance that I find visually fascinating.  Applied on top of that are chic shapes containing the links to the pages within the site.  The combination of images just works incredibly well, and sets the perfect tone for a website that would attract experimental artists and spaces.  I do not want my website to have the exact aesthetic of this website, but I would like it to have a very surreal feel.  Simple, yet strange, as it were... I think that this will fit my personality, which is important considering the website is meant to be an online portfolio of my work.

-Kelly F.

Lucio Fontana - The Beginnings of New Media in Art

The artist I chose to research for my paper and oral presentation is Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), an artist who was very influential in New Media developments in art. 

Fontana was born in Argentina in 1899, but when he was six years old his family moved back to Italy.  While living in Milan Fontana decided to attend the School of Architecture at the Technical Institute Carlo Cattaneo from 1914 to 1915.  1922 Fontana moved with his father back to Buenos Aires, and perhaps due to the influence of his father’s work as a sculptor Fontana set up his first sculpture studio in 1924.  However, Fontana moved back to Milan merely four years after establishing his studio.  He took up studies once again, attending the Accademia di Brera from 1928 to 1930.

           
During this time Fontana was taught by Adolfo Wildt, whose tastes apparently ran to very monumental, plastic sculptures.  Lucio, on the other hand, is described as creating sculptures during this period which look ephemeral and tentative, yet full of life and movement – as though a slight breath could send the dream floating away.  While these works were still slightly figurative, it was not long before Fontana moved entirely into abstraction as means of communication through art.  By 1932 he was counted as a member of the Abstraction–Création group, and was producing pieces that could either be considered wall sculptures or three-dimensional paintings.  During World War II Fontana once again moved to Argentina, and helped to found the Academia Altamira for artists in 1946.  Around this time Fontana began to develop the theory that would serve as a driving force behind the rest of his art.  This concept, or indeed this movement, is Spatialism. 

Fontana does not have a website, but his images and his theories can be readily found on the internet.  One of my favorite images of his work can be seen below:

Fontana's 'Spatial Light - Structure in Neon for the 9th Milan Triennial at the Palazzo dell'Arte,' Milan (1951) is a beautiful New Media work.  The neon tubes were meant to influence how a person interacted with the environment - to break up the viewer's vision and experience and create a new type of space.  Fontana is a fascinating artist, and anyone interested in New Media should make a study of his works.

-Kelly F.

Water, Water Everywhere, and More than a Drop to Drink - Dean Kamen's Slingshot

When I was asked to look at the inventions of Dean Kamen, naturally the first thing I found was the Segway.  This motorized machine is undoubtedly cool and intriguing, but I found another of his inventions more fascinating: the Slingshot water purification system.

In this picture the inventor can be seen with these little, unassuming machines.  However, these machines were designed to purify water in remote places.  Kamen was trying to solve the world's water problem, and thus the Slingshot project was born.  Apparently, it can convert any liquid containing water into pure H2O, using distillation.  I like the fact that the project was begun with humanitarian applications in mind, but I have to wonder what happened to that?  Everything I read on the subject claimed that Kamen and his team got the device to function, yet I would have thought their success would be a bigger deal on the international stage.  I hope that Kamen is finding a way to distribute this machine to the areas that need it, if indeed it works and is in any way feasible.

-Kelly F.

Reviewing the Impossible - Speculations from a Design Firm

In this assignment, students were given the following prompt:

Go to the website of designers Dunne & Raby and read about their project titled, "BETWEEN REALITY AND THE IMPOSSIBLE,"and choose your favorite of their 4 designs (Foragers, Stop and Scan, EM Listeners, Afterlife):

 http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/543/0

 

Post the image of your favorite design with a few words that reflect why you like it.

 

Frankly, after reading through these concepts I can't say that I like any of them.  They are all rather disturbing... I really dislike the idea of having communications monitored, or relying on anything like a brain scan to prove guilt in a crime.  Suicide device does not really peak my interest either.  The only design I can claim to like in any way is "Foragers."

 

I have to admit that it is a good idea to design new systems for maximizing what people get out of food and the environment.  There is already a huge food shortage in the world, and I like the design firm's effort to propose a solution to the problem.  It is creative, and yet it is as of yet quite an undeveloped concept (or at least it appears to be at first).  The strange devices in the images are not explained in great detail, allowing viewers to come up with their own explanations for exactly what is going on with the inventions being depicted.  This is a very interesting way to put designs out into the world, and fits with the firm's goal of working theoretically.

-Kelly F.